The System of Objects is a tour de force-a theoretical letter-in-a-bottle tossed into the ocean in 1968, which brilliantly communicates to us all the live ideas of the day-offering a cultural critique of the commodity in consumer society.

Jean Baudrillard (1929-2007) began teaching sociology at the Universit¿ de Paris-X in 1966. He retired from academia in 1987 to write books and travel until his death in 2007.